Britons who live with a medical condition or illness are encouraged to see if they can boost their income by over £750 a month by claiming PIP (Personal Independence Payments).
The benefit helps people with live with a long-term condition to cover their extra costs. The payments go out every four weeks, with the maximum amount at £184.30 a week, or £737.20 for each four-week pay period.
This works out at £9,583.60 a year, or £796.63 a month. There is a daily living part and a mobility party to the benefit, with lower and higher rates depending on your level of need.
The current payment rates are:
Daily living element
- Lower rate – £72.65
- Higher rate – £108.55
Mobility element
- Lower rate – £28.70
- Higher rate – £75.75.
There are around 550 different conditions that qualify for PIP. You have to expect your difficulties caused by the condition to last for at least 12 months from when they started to qualify.
Below are the 21 main categories of conditions that qualify, with the numbers indicating the number of claimants for each category from October 2013 to April 2024:
- Psychiatric disorders – 1,347,889
- Musculoskeletal disease (general) – 672,201
- Neurological disease – 465,187
- Musculoskeletal disease (regional) – 416,878
- Respiratory disease – 138,003
- Malignant disease – 111,874
- Cardiovascular disease – 92,015
- Visual disease – 59,085
- Endocrine disease – 47,236
- Hearing disorders – 37,384
- Gastrointestinal disease – 33,315
- Genitourinary disease – 27,812
- Skin disease – 23,849
- Autoimmune disease (connective tissue disorders) – 19,240
- Infectious disease – 13,543
- Diseases of the liver, gallbladder and biliary tract – 13,241
- Unknown or missing – 9,243
- Haematological disease – 8,391
- Metabolic disease – 5,130
- Multisystem and extremes of age – 1,616
- Diseases of the immune system – 1,262.
A person claiming PIP may also get a disability premium, a top-up payment on top of their other benefits.
This may apply if you claim:
- Income Support
- Income-based Jobseeker’s Allowance (JSA)
- Income-related Employment and Support Allowance (ESA)
- Housing Benefit.
Claimants may also be eligible for the disability element of Working Tax Credit.
You can start your PIP claim by calling the PIP new claims phone line on 0800 917 2222.
You can also begin a claim by writing a letter to Freepost DWP PIP 1. There is no need to write anything other than the address on the envelope – you will then be sent a form for you to fill in and return.
